328 GENETICS 



There is one grave danger connected with the ad- 

 ministration of our humane and commendable philan- 

 thropies for the unfortunate, since it frequently hap- 

 pens that defectives are kept in institutions until they 

 are sexually mature or are partly self-supporting, 

 when they are liberated only to add to the burden of 

 society by reproducing their like. 



Furthermore, if defectives of the same sort are col- 

 lected together in the same institutions, unless sexual 

 segregation is strictly maintained, they may by the 

 very circumstance of proximity tend to reproduce 

 their kind just as defectives in any isolated community 

 tend to multiply. There is much misplaced philan- 

 thropy that is euthenic but not eugenic. The tempo- 

 rary troubles of the individual may be alleviated only 

 to make possible a future addition to the burden of 

 society. 



David Starr Jordan cites the interesting case of 

 cretinism which occurs in the valley of Aosta in 

 northern Italy, to prove the wisdom of the sexual 

 segregation of defectives. Cretinism is an hereditary 

 defect connected with an abnormal development of 

 the thyroid gland which results in a peculiar form of 

 idiocy usually associated with goitre. 



"In the city of Aosta the goitrous cretin has been 

 for centuries an object of charity. The idiot has re- 

 ceived generous support, while the poor farmer or 

 laborer with brains and no goitre has had the severest 

 of struggles. In the competition of life a premium 

 has thus been placed on imbecility and disease. The 

 cretm has mated with cretm, the goitre with goitre, 



